1. How To Fight Doubt

Preacher: Gareth Maggs
Date: 21 June 2021

In today’s video we are talking about doubt.

As Christians we all doubt. Sometimes we doubt his existence, whether he actually exists, or we doubt his character – like whether he cares, whether he is present with us or far off, whether he is just or we doubt his ability, like whether he has the power to do something.

Doubting is part of who we are as Christians, so I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of it, but we do have a way we can fight it.

We need to look in history to prove that the death and resurrection of Jesus really did happen. If we can prove this then we can prove without a doubt that God is real, because he really came in the flesh to die and rise and therefore, we can prove that he really loves us, that he really is concerned for the world and that he really does care about Justice. Both his existence and character can be proved.

We are going to look at the death and resurrection over three videos. In this video we are going to look at why fighting doubt this way is so helpful.

Why is fighting doubt this way so helpful?

Because it’s grounded in history. It’s fact. See a lot of people will doubt their Christianity because some things don’t rationally make sense to them. I.e. They’ll come across a theological truth like how a good God allows suffering, and because this doesn’t make sense to them, they’ll therefore doubt some aspect of God. This will cause people to question whether they believe in him. The thing is, we often believe things that don’t rationally make sense to us…

For example, if a friend of yours is told by the doctor that they are terminally ill, but they don’t actually die and carry on living. You don’t look at them and say, ‘no but you are dead’ and regard them as dead because rationally it doesn’t make sense that they are alive. No, you will call them ‘alive’. The reason you call them ‘alive’, is because although rationally it doesn’t make sense that they are alive, in reality, in history, in time and space the person is still breathing. In this sense what happens in reality trumps rationality. Although something doesn’t make sense to you, you believe it to be true, because in reality it’s true. Now there probably is a rational explanation for why the person is alive, it’s just that the doctors and you can’t understand it.

It’s the same with Christianity, reality trumps rationality. Often there are parts of it that seem to not make rational sense. But just like the dying a friend example, just because it doesn’t make sense doesn’t mean you dis regard it. There are lots of things about God that don’t make sense, and it’s not because it’s irrational, but it’s because our minds are not big enough to understand it. That’s a good thing, if God could fit into our brains he’d cease to be God.

So if we can’t trust rational to say whether God is there or not, or what his character is like, what are supposed to do? Well reality trumps rationality. We need to do what we do to the friend who is still alive. Instead of trusting rational, we look to reality, history, time and space and we look to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

2ndly: Because it’s fact, we can deal with things that might cause doubt objectively, instead of subjectively.

What do I mean? Suppose you walk into a forest and you see a log floating in mid air. It may cause you to be curious and you may walk up to it to see why it’s floating. You might try see if perhaps it’s being suspended on a web, or strings, or perhaps there is a fan on the floor that is holding it up. What ever happens, you won’t doubt that gravity exists. Even if this things seems to be defying gravity, you won’t say gravity doesn’t exist. You might even walk away never knowing how this thing is floating, but you’ll still believe in gravity.

Just the same with Christianity, once you can prove without a doubt God’s character and person by looking in reality, then whenever you approach things that might seem strange, like things like predestination, you can look at it objectively. Which means you can look at it without emotions like doubt, anger, frustration that come from looking at it subjectively. Like the person who sees the branch floating in mid air, who merely seems an anomylly, so we can come across anomalies, but not be moved or wavered in our faith in the slightest.

So I’m excited for these next few videos. I hope you are too.

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